“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” captured the fourth highest 3-Day opening ever for a Western film in China. Even more notable is the 86% share of revenue for Friday’s opening day according to researcher Ent Group.

China only allows 34 US films per year into the country and they are rarely, if ever, small intimate films. The blockbusters that do get in vie for numbers like the 175,000 screenings per day that China can deliver. That is the draw for movie makers and defines the underlying culture competition between the West and China. They limit our films in an effort to limit our cultural influence. Source: Variety

Mobile’s Value Continues to Increase

On : June 28, 2018

Across all categories – gaming, shopping and travel – measured by an AppsFlyer analysis of Facebook data, life-time user value from advertising has risen 82.8% for mobile apps in the two years between Q1 2016 and Q1 2018 with the big leap having seen in the period Q12016 to Q12017. The analysis looked at 250 million nonorganic app installations (ad-driven) and $2.4 billion in revenue generated by 3,800 apps in the first quarter of 2018.

More mature new media markets in the US and the UK generate far more revenue in a highly competitive environment, which opens the potential for growth in emerging markets where the markets are more forgiving. Source: VentureBeat

China Inflation: May Same as April

On : June 27, 2018

China’s inflation rate flattened out in May, remaining at 1.8 percent. That matches April’s number and the average for the last twelve months. And it sits in contrast to the 3% rate the government had targeted for the year. Internal numbers show that food prices increased a mere 0.1% while non-food prices increased 2.2 percent. Source: Trading Economics; National Bureau of Statistics, China

GDPR Non-Compliance Can Be Costly

On : June 26, 2018

GDPR regulations are not to be dismissed given the costly repercussions of a compliance complaint issued by the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO). Sanctions come in a range of possible wrist slaps such as warnings, reprimands, ordering of specific compliance requests and communication of data breaches, but can also expand to eye-watering fines as high as $23.2 million or 4% of annual turnover.

To avoid these penalties, you have to get your opt-in permissions in order. The negative resulting from these regs is that campaigns will be smaller while the positive is that the audience for the campaign will be more willing to see your message. Regardless, you should not be standing still on this subject. Source: The Drum

China = Mobile

On : June 25, 2018

May 2018 produced almost nine million new mobile subscribers continuing China’s endless upward trend and emphasizing another cultural difference between China and the rest of the world. In China the desktop is secondary to the mobile device. Most of life in China is done on a phone. Sources: China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom

Home Building in China Defies Bubble

On : June 22, 2018

Of the 70 cities in which home prices are tracked by China’s government, 61 of them saw home prices increase in May. That’s up from 58 in April. Together with these price increases and a rise in permits for new building in tier three and four cities, suggest that the speculation in housing has not been curbed as the government had hoped.

Agencies Find a Way Around a Programmatic World

On : June 21, 2018

Much of the focus in digital advertising over the last couple years has been around programmatic buying and the fallout from its emergence and rapid growth. With it has come the positive – media plan efficiency – and some negative – fraud, brand safety, need for transparency, etc. The negative has motivated a move by some brands and publishers to bring programmatic buying in-house, which leaves agencies out in the cold.

Zach Rosenberg argues in MediaPost for agencies to “not let automation kill the art form that makes our industry great.” He continues, “There is nothing more effective than using media to amplify creative messaging and to emotionally connect with audiences; both fundamental tenets of communications planning. Let’s also not forget the importance of contextual relevance.”

Creativity is the essence of agency work. If agencies are going to remain relevant in the programmatic era, creativity must to be applied to the understanding and use of data with the same diligence it is for the messaging. Source: MediaPost

Three Drivers for Chinese Consumption Growth

On : June 20, 2018

Consumption growth in India, the US and China are in a class above the rest of the world. Perspective: India’s expected growth starts from a relative low point compared to either the US or China, which explains its high rate. US consumption is about three times the size of China’s and China’s consumption is slightly more than three times that of India.

China’s growth in consumption is being driven by two demographic factors and on big technological change:

The rise of the upper-middleclass and affluent households, which is expected to double to 100 million or 30% of the country’s households.

The rise of the “younger generation,” those born in the 1980’s, 1990s and 2000s, are now the dominant buying force in the economy.

The rise of e-commerce, which was 3% of China’s 2010 consumption, has grown five-fold to 15% today.

Together these forces drive China’s ever-maturing economic growth and its successful shift to a consumer economy. Source: World Economic Forum

Where Roads Diverge

On : June 19, 2018

In-app mobile advertising is making its move. Just as with all digital advertising that has preceded it; mobile presents special issues for buy-siders. Even some of biggest of them have yet to reckon with the differences between display and mobile.

The first shocking reality is that cookies don’t work in mobile targeting. An initial strategy to overcome the issue has been to develop a white-list of apps and migrate it to private marketplaces, away from unstructured open exchanges. Still there’s a problem. White-lists are not sophisticated enough for targeting. Audience-based app categorization is the ultimate answer.

On the technical side there’s the issue of rendering, particularly with video ads. Low render rates mean wasted supply that is not seeing a timed-out video roll. Here, programmatic exchanges have a responsibility to check for creative compatibility. AdExchanger.com

Chinese Consumers See a Positive Buying Environment

On : June 18, 2018

April marked the seventh consecutive month with the Consumer Confidence Index in the 120s. Impressive. Though the Index may go up and down from one month to the next, Chinese consumers have been showing a strong, consistent belief in their economy, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since we have been tracking these data – that goes back to January 2015. May the buying mood continue. Sources: Tradingeconomics.com; Nat’l Bureau of Statistics, China